Saturday, October 18, 2008

Hypatia of Alexandria (pronounced /haɪˈpeɪʃə/) (Greek: Ὑπατία; born between AD 350 and 370 – 415) was a Greek scholar from Alexandria in Egypt, considered the first notable woman in mathematics, who also taught philosophy and astronomy. She lived in Roman Egypt, and was killed by a Coptic Christian mob who blamed her for religious turmoil. She has been hailed as a "valiant defender of science against religion."

And according to Gibbon:

She was stripped naked and dragged through the streets to the newly christianised Caesareum church and killed. Some reports suggest she was flayed with ostrakois (literally, "oyster shells", though also used to refer to roof tiles or broken pottery) and set ablaze while still alive, though other accounts suggest those actions happened after her death:

A new angle by one reader:

This Prop. 8 is nothing less than religious persecution against those who have different beliefs. And if straight unmarried people think they are safe from these "conservatives"- think again. In Arkansas, there is a push by these religious groups to ban unmarried people from fostering children.

Once gays and lesbians have been persecuted with a change to the state Constitution, there is no telling who these people will set their sights on next. Vote No on Prop. 8 - it is religious persecution, pure and simple.

I agree, but making the Elmer Gantrys and Elmer Fudds of the world see that point of view is totally frustrating. They, like their religious ancestors, need to hate people. To them, life isn't worth living unless you have "heathens" "pagans" "Jews" "outcasts" "lepers" "sodomites" to go up against. They are, after all, devils in disguise.

There's a Christian Crimeline somewhere in my research. From ca. 200 CE (yes, even before the New Testament was solidified/sanctioned, there were Christians killing other Christians as "heretics") through events like the concentration camp for pagans (a Catholic Auschwitz) at Skythopolis (in Syria) and through the Crusades (great excuse for killing Jews as well as Muslims!) and through the "civilization" of the Americas and the "heathen" Native Americans, up till the present day, over 140 MILLION people have been killed "In the Name of God!"

In Europe, most of the 782 wars in the last 800 years have been sanctioned (on both sides) by Christianity. To this day, Christianity has not been able to come up with satisfactory apologies for anti-Semitism, slavery and just about every kind of bigotry known to man. Hitler was not original: even popes thought about the possibility of eugenics (Pacelli - Pius XII - would have experimented with anything to destroy Communist Russia).

Crazy, nitpicking "doctrines" have given rise to about 30,000 denominations, while the "non-denominational" churches still have "statements of belief" which are scary in the extreme.Televangelists and megachurch preachers don't even bother to hide their hatred for others. And while some proselytizing churchgoers preach "love the sinner, hate the sin," they more than not get their slogan backwards when "at war" in the sinful secular world handling subjects like homosexuality.

Do I actually think that gas ovens are in our future if they succeed in legislating hate and bans like Proposition 8?

Let's put it this way: once they feel any sort of power, they know that such power is not an end.